What says "Valentine's Day" better than the gift of a ring designed by the Master of Love himself, Mitch O'Connell?Let the M.O'C aura of wit, charm, charisma, sophistication and smooth moves blind her to all your formally obvious faults when you offer Retro A Go-Go fine taste to your fine lady.I guarantee you'll be getting' a 'lil "what have you", "hello there", "oh my" and "uh huh" in return!

What says "Valentine's Day" better than the gift of a ring designed by the Master of Love himself, Mitch O'Connell?Let the M.O'C aura of wit, charm, charisma, sophistication and smooth moves blind her to all your formally obvious faults when you offer Retro A Go-Go fine taste to your fine lady.I guarantee you'll be getting' a 'lil "what have you", "hello there", "oh my" and "uh huh" in return!

From this original cover design doodle, all that ended up making it on the today's Wall Street Journal was the lettering. The new photographic layout is probably better, but I'd still rather have my art all over everything!Thanks to pal/Art Director David Bamundo for thinking of me (you're still getting an invoice!). :-)

Some troublemaker hooligan left a one star review on my book "Mitch O'Connell Tattoos". To counterbalance this hater, please leave a 5 star review asap.Many funny things will be posted soon to make up for your effort!Thanks,The staff at Mitch O'Connell Enterprises

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

This book painfully (I mean helpfully) explains everything I did wrong on my path of trying to be a wealthy fine artist, mainly covering the almost mystical magic trick of getting people to think your art is worth millions, no matter what the sh*t (literally) looks like.

Brought to you by The Best Church of God, whose amazing service spectacular is coming up 8pm Saturday, January 29nd at the Victory Gardens Theatre here in Chicago!Why not friend them on Facebook?As for today's selection, I loved watching the PTL (People That Love/Praise The Lord) Jim and Tammy Bakker show even before his downfall. It was wonderfully crazy right off the bat and it was even a more wild soap opera as he frantically attempted his double talk dance away from the licking hellfire. This book has every delicious detail of their miserable mess. A riveting read (and for as low as a penny on Amazon!).

Four of Four!The wonderful, talented, genius, Sublime Stitching mogul Jenny Hart asked me to come up with embroidery patterns based on my tattoo flash a couple years back. She end up deciding the rockabilly gal vibe was the right direction, so my earlier attempts at simplifying the linework with a different subject matter for stitching have remained in the vaults.... until now!I hope that "..." pause made the announcement extra exciting!So, as a late Christmas gift, feel free to print these out and go to town on your pillowcases, towels and clothing!And, why not go ahead and order the one they DID manufacture athttp://sublimestitching.com/mitchoconnell.html

Three of Four!The wonderful, talented, genius, Sublime Stitching mogul Jenny Hart asked me to come up with embroidery patterns based on my tattoo flash a couple years back. She end up deciding the rockabilly gal vibe was the right direction, so my earlier attempts at simplifying the linework with a different subject matter for stitching have remained in the vaults.... until now!I hope that "..." pause made the announcement extra exciting!So, as a late Christmas gift, feel free to print these out and go to town on your pillowcases, towels and clothing!And, why not go ahead and order the one they DID manufacture athttp://sublimestitching.com/mitchoconnell.html

Two of Four!The wonderful, talented, genius, Sublime Stitching mogul Jenny Hart asked me to come up with embroidery patterns based on my tattoo flash a couple years back. She end up deciding the rockabilly gal vibe was the right direction, so my earlier attempts at simplifying the linework with a different subject matter for stitching have remained in the vaults.... until now!I hope that "..." pause made the announcement extra exciting!So, as a late Christmas gift, feel free to print these out and go to town on your pillowcases, towels and clothing!And, why not go ahead and order the one they DID manufacture athttp://sublimestitching.com/mitchoconnell.html

One of Four!The wonderful, talented, genius, Sublime Stitching mogul Jenny Hart asked me to come up with embroidery patterns based on my tattoo flash a couple years back. She end up deciding the rockabilly gal vibe was the right direction, so my earlier attempts at simplifying the linework with a different subject matter for stitching have remained in the vaults.... until now!I hope that "..." pause made the announcement extra exciting!So, as a late Christmas gift, feel free to print these out and go to town on your pillowcases, towels and clothing!And, why not go ahead and order the one they DID manufacture athttp://sublimestitching.com/mitchoconnell.html

Again, the wayback machine has been set for December 2008…Kieran has shown her great illustrations at my last gallery show and ended up selling 5 Bettie Page pieces raking in $100 (that's a million dollars in kid money), so I for sure had to have her to be part of the Tura Satana show. She did 6 fantastic 8.5 by 11" portraits, so good in fact that I raised her price up $5 to $25 smackers apiece (I feel that the application of glitter automatically bumps the price 20%). When the opening was coming up. Kieran, showing she's as much into the art of salesmanship as I am, made it a point of telling me that she had to be there because folks will only buy them if they can see the actual cute 10 year old that did 'em. Unfortunately, it was a school night (a rare Thursday opening), so the wee miss had to stay home. Yesterday, sitting in the dining room, she wanted to know how many she sold. Just waking up from a too short nap, it looked like she better be getting great news, or else. I took a step back, made sure the table was between us, and said none were sold. She screamed, "What, not even one?!! I told you I should have been there! All that time wasted!" Little fists started to pound on the table. I then remembered that I had promised to buy one of them. "Oh wait, one did sell!" I quickly added. Forgetting I had raised the price I handed her a $20. But I was the only one that made that lapse, "They were $25!!" the mini commercial artist loudly corrected. A few minutes of stomping and grousing followed about what should have been. Telling her that she made more money at the show than I did didn't help (and oddly didn't make me feel any better either). Then, with hands on hips she scowled, "Who bought the one drawing?!" I fessed up. "YOU BOUGHT IT?! THAT'S EVEN WORSE!!!" She raised her arms in the air so the god's could see her pain then collapsed on the floor in a wail.A happy ending. The money was used for a new pair of jeans so only smiles were seen after she returned from shopping. I find the squeezable Taurus adorable even when she's enraged, but future art directors and gallery owners might want to prepare themselves for another temperamental artist on the horizon!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Posting all those pics of the "Tura! Tura! Tura!" show brings back even more memories!Let's hop in the Wayback machine and set he dial for about 2 years back. The room is spinning, I'm going out of focus... Poof!Don't ever fall asleep (aka pass out) anywhere near a member of my family! After a whole week of having Tura Satana in town, dinners out, the Music Box movie screening, the biggest gallery opening ever, sleeping 3 hours a night, I sat down to relax with a generous gin and 7-Up (that's why my right hand is cupped next to my crotch, in case you were wondering), and instantly went to dreamland. Son Leo with the encouragement visiting best pal Brian Johnson, had apparently a terrific time with the kind of hurtful humor that I find definitely NOT funny. OK, I did find it pretty funny! At the tail end of this fun filled mocking, apparently thinking that there was a remote chance I might be faking, my #1 son held a giant black sharpie under my nose threatening to give me a Groucho mustache. I obviously didn't respond, and they just couldn't bring themselves to rise to that level of cruelty. I wonder in their position if I would have had the same level of restraint? One day we might find out!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

It was a pleasure to be involved with the StatiCCreep group show at Las Manos Gallery! Sorry I couldn't hang out longer to talk to each and everyone there about myself, but I weakened after about 100 "can we go now!" tugs on my arms from the offspring before I broke down. I think I even left some liquor at the bar unconsumed! That's not like me!

Would you like some extra sugar with your morning cereal?The sweet little lady who sleeps with me every night, Skittles, has a habit of jumping off the bed when turn over and pop out my contacts (then quickly returns). Last week she started a new strategy, jumping on my back and holding on tight to see what I'm doing.

Well, the hell with you!I thought it was cute!Just for that I'm not going to show you the matching winter outfits I knit for us!